Not to knock the people who've given me the opportunity; I appreciate all the opportunities I've gotten, but one of the things I think I really learned from the features I got to direct is that your job as a director is everything about the movie. It's to pick a story that's really worth making, and make sure that the basic components are there. You're not just a part of the team. You're really in charge, and the responsibility falls on you if all the components aren't there for a worthwhile film.

I think that cable TV is a great venue to do something interesting.

My goal, whenever entering a project, is always to gain 12 pounds.

You can't guarantee that you'll make a great movie, but you can make a greater effort than I made at trying to see that the basics are there.

If you're committed enough, you can make any story work. I once told a woman I was Kevin Costner, and it worked because I believed it.

With acting, if a friend asked me to be in a movie or TV show, there's a lot of things on my résumé I did without reading them or knowing what they were. I just said I'd do that because a friend wrote it, directed, produced, acted in it. With directing, I'm sticking to my guns, not that a lot of people are begging me to direct.

It's nice that the independent scene is taken seriously, and has been.